Quick Tip: When to rush a wonder with a late game GE

[Sisiutil]

A quick tip on how to use Great Engineers for wonder-rushing in the late game:

At a certain point, a Great Engineer will no longer build all of a world wonder; he will instead contribute a not-inconsiderable amount of hammers toward one. Using the GE for those hammers ASAP may not be the best idea, however; in a tight race to build the wonder you could still lose and wind up having wasted the GE. On the other hand, if you use him too late you may still build the wonder, but wind up wasting some of the hammers the GE contributed (which do NOT overflow to the next build).

Here's a quick way to figure out exactly when to use a GE to rush a late-game wonder:

(C-Q-E)/H=T

Where

• C = the total cost of the wonder
• Q = the amount of hammers currently in the build queue
• E = the hammers the Great Engineer will contribute to the build
• H = the number of hammers the wonder-building city is contributing each turn
• T is the number of turns to go before you can optimally burn the GE

When you get the value for T, just ignore the numbers after the decimal.

A few tips for using this formula. If you are performing this calculation on the first turn building the wonder, beware of hammers overflowing from the previous build that will temporarily throw off the value of H. In addition, remember that many other things may affect the number of turns/amount of hammers needed, such as chopping nearby forests, city growth, a change in civics, a golden age, and so on. The number of hammers the GE will contribute may change as well, so you should perform the calculation every few turns to double-check.

P.S. Regarding that last point--if anyone can contribute how the game calculates the total number of hammers a GE will contribute to a wonder (i.e. the value of "E" in my formula), that would be great!

 

[Manco Capac]

In Assets/XML/Units/CIV4UnitInfos.xml

The formula is: GEngineer Rush Value = 500 + 20 * City population (city in which the wonder is built).

GScientists bulb value scales along empire population, while GEngineer rush value scales along workforce in the city.

 

[Handel]

In Assets/XML/Units/CIV4UnitInfos.xml

The formula is: GEngineer Rush Value = 500 + 20 * City population (city in which the wonder is built).

Is it the same on marathon speed? 'Cause I think I got much more hammers playing on marathon.

 

[Gumbolt]

I would guess the hammers change for each speed.

 

[Sisiutil]

In Assets/XML/Units/CIV4UnitInfos.xml

The formula is: GEngineer Rush Value = 500 + 20 * City population (city in which the wonder is built).

GScientists bulb value scales along empire population, while GEngineer rush value scales along workforce in the city.

Interesting. So you can increase the GE's hammer yield by growing the city as much as possible before and during the build. Is there a cap?

 

[Grimith]

Is it the same on marathon speed? 'Cause I think I got much more hammers playing on marathon.

I would guess the hammers change for each speed.

If memory serves:

On Quick, a Great Engineer's Hurry Production command gives 335 + (13 * City Population), which is 67% of Standard Speed.
On Epic, a Great Engineer's Hurry Production command gives 750 + (30 * City Population), which is 150% of Standard Speed.
On Marathon, a Great Engineer's Hurry Production command gives 1500 + (60 * City Population), which is 300% of Standard Speed.

Edit, @Sisiutil: The only cap on the amount of provided by your population is your population. If you somehow managed to stuff fifty people into a city, they would all increase the by the relevant amount.

 

[elmurcis]

Something new again... Using GE for Kremlin very often (as its often done by AI early).. but somehow missed thing that in big city it will work better than in small.. Thanks

 

[s.bernbaum]

It may not be very mathematical and is the seat if the pants and micro managing way. That said, what I do is move the GE to the city doing the wonder build, then mouse over the button to have him contribute to the build and see how many hammers that will be. I then mouse over the wonder being built and see how many more hammers are needed to finish it (total needed minus number already in it). A glance at the top of the city screen shows the hammers per turn. I estimate how many turns until the GE can complete the build. A few turns before that I start checking each turn until the number the GE will add exceeds the number still needed. Then it is time to use the GE to finish the build.